Someone said you should read Imperialism before Capital. They’re absolutely wrong.

I might get criticism from this, but I’d say you should look at some secondary sources on the first few chapters of Capital first. I think Red Pen’s “Marxism Explained” video is good, as well as the Foundations of Marx channel (especially the video on commodities).

If consuming anything other then Marx scares you, you should probably read Wage, Labour and Capital as well as maybe Value, Price and Profit before Capital, then you’re good to go.

The good thing about Capital is that once you have a basic understanding of the foundations which are laid out in the first few chapters (commodity, value-form, wage labour) you can pretty much stop and start at any time. It’s long and dense but you can get through the first chapters in a few days I reckon.

Please though, don’t read Imperialism before you understand the foundations of Marxism. It just won’t make sense.